Ellen Smith for Oak Ridge City CouncilRead Ellen's comments on local issues and topics here -- and vote for Ellen Smith in the November 2014 election. Website paid for year-round by Ellen Smith and provided to Ellen Smith for City Council as an in-kind campaign contribution.2014-11-25T05:08:29Zhttp://ellensmith.org/blog/feed/atom/WordPressEllen Smithhttp://ellensmith.org/http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=13502014-11-25T05:08:29Z2014-11-25T05:08:29ZIs it three weeks since the election already?!? Yes, it is. I’m elected to Council again, sworn in, and now it seems I am the new Mayor Pro-Tem.

Now we move on to the business of governing. Monday night’s swearing-in was more of a ceremonial occasion than I ever recall in the past, impressively conducted by long-time city judge Bob McNees in his judicial robes.

The vote for Mayor took a lot longer than I had expected, due to an unexpectedly even split of votes among the 4 announced candidates. I congratulate Warren Gooch on his new position as Mayor, and I hope to do a good job as his back-up in the position of Mayor Pro Tem (the Council member who fills in when the Mayor is absent). Thanks to my fellow Council members for entrusting me with that position.

]]>0Ellen Smithhttp://ellensmith.org/http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=13432014-11-01T20:44:45Z2014-11-01T20:44:01ZOak Ridge Today has published a letter to the editor from Liane (Lee) Russell in which she endorses me for election.

In the letter, she says (in part):

Oak Ridgers are fortunate in having a candidate of the caliber of Ellen Smith willing to once again serve on City Council, where, between 2007 and 2012, we benefited greatly from her wise, intelligent, and highly informed voice.

Lee is someone I greatly admire for qualities that include wisdom, intelligence, and being highly informed. I will never match her accomplishments, either as a scientist (her ground-breaking work in mammalian genetics earned her many recognitions, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences) or as a citizen (with her late husband, Bill Russell, she founded Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, is widely credited with achieving the establishment of both the Obed Wild and Scenic River and the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, and in her 10th decade of life continues to be largely responsible for TCWP’s extraordinary newsletter).

I am honored to be the subject of this wonderful letter, and I hope I can live up to Lee’s confidence.

]]>0Ellen Smithhttp://ellensmith.org/http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=13392014-11-06T05:20:06Z2014-10-23T18:06:32Z This year’s ballot list for City Council is a long one, with 10 candidates competing for 4 seats. I’m next to the last in alphabetical order, which means I’m next to last on that long list. Scroll down the list to find me and cast your vote for me!

]]>0Ellen Smithhttp://ellensmith.org/http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=13302014-10-27T13:08:06Z2014-10-16T03:29:43ZThis is news I was definitely not expecting:

The Progress PAC (the O.R. Chamber of Commerce political action committee) included me in its list of endorsements, announced to the news media in a press release earlier today.

This was surprising news because I have never been aligned with the Chamber, I have strongly opposed some Chamber initiatives in the past, and I am not shy about my support for principles like conservation of publicly owned open space and putting the interests of existing residents and owners ahead of the interests of new business development. However, I respect the Chamber as the main representative of and advocate for a very important element of our community — and a group whose members and volunteers who are passionate about the future of Oak Ridge. We share many common goals and interests in this community, and if we are going to make progress as a community, it’s necessary for government, the business community, our nonprofit sector, and (ideally) all citizens to try to understand each other’s interests and needs and work together for the benefit of all.

I told the PAC’s committee (hard-working civic volunteers, all) that I would accept their endorsement, just as I would accept the endorsement of any group of citizens who go to the trouble of evaluating candidates for office and making endorsements as a group. I see the PAC’s decision to include me among their endorsements as indicating a recognition that people with divergent perspectives can work together to achieve positive outcomes for our community (indeed, diversity produces more positive outcomes than uniformity!) — and that I am both qualified and committed to work for what’s best for Oak Ridge as a member of the City Council.

I am well aware that some people are suspicious about the Progress PAC’s motives and the candidates who cooperated with the PAC. As I said long before receiving today’s news, the formation of a political action committee makes the Chamber’s role in local political activity more transparent than it has ever been in the past. The PAC must operate under stringent state of Tennessee rules for multicandidate political action committees — getting its funds from member donations (no money from the Chamber organization) and publicly reporting all donations and expenditures over $100.

Additionally, the Progress PAC will not be providing money to any of the candidates they are endorsing — I’m not sure what the PAC plans to do, beyond publicizing its endorsements. I recall that several other groups have endorsed (and promoted) slates of local candidates in in past Oak Ridge elections, but I don’t believe that any of those groups registered as a PAC. With that background, I congratulate the Progress PAC for operating in the open, as required by current state law.

Anyone who knows me at all well will laugh at the suggestion that the Progress PAC endorsement will change my opinions, positions, or future votes if I am elected to City Council. As I did in the past, I will make up my own mind, always aiming for what’s best for the community. I’ll do my own analysis, ask questions, seek out public input, and listen to what others have to say — and I will pursue consensus decisions where possible (because it’s rare for a 4-3 vote to result in a decision that everyone is happy to support — and our local government needs to present a more united front and a more positive image than it has done in the recent past).

The questions that the Progress PAC asked candidates were aimed at gaining information about candidates’ views on broad topics in local governance and our ideas and plans for responding to community challenges — they were not narrowly focused on the interests of the Chamber and the business community. I have the impression that most of us candidates (even those who refused to be considered for PAC endorsement) found it worthwhile to develop responses to the PAC questions because it helped us frame positions on questions that many citizens are asking. All of my answers to the PAC questionnaire are available on this blog:

]]>0Ellen Smithhttp://ellensmith.org/http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=13272014-10-14T04:28:39Z2014-10-14T04:28:39ZI commented in a conversation on Facebook that I believe is worth sharing here. A local person started the conversation with a question (edited for brevity):

I was just looking over the updated plans for the next phase of the Jackson Square renovation. The parking lot will be completely rebuilt, and the latest drawings show a splash pad system to be installed in a center courtyard area. My thoughts are about the on-going Mall talks, and how we want to attract more retail to the area, yet in Jackson Square there are empty store locations, a few spots that desperately need work…

So my question to everyone is what do we call downtown? To me, the old Jackson square is technically downtown Oak Ridge, not the Mall, but most of the newer development is around the mall. Does Oak Ridge have an overall development plan for the future? Why work so hard on Jackson Square and then put all of the focus on the Mall rebuild? The mall conversion is basically a design patterned after what Jackson Square already is when you think about it. Could we attract additional construction near Jackson Square to expand the experience there?

Several others commented on bygone days at Jackson Square and the mall site, and another person asked “When is the second part of the renovation suppose to begin?”

The Farmer’s Market at Jackson Square can help define it as a village center.

My response:
As long-time Oak Ridgers know, the mall site used to be the “Downtown Shopping Center.” The location was designated to be the city’s commercial center as part of a master plan during the days of federal government ownership of the city. It’s still a logical location for major retail businesses.

In contrast, Jackson Square is currently envisioned as something more like a village center — a neighborhood where residents and visitors can walk between their homes, shops, eateries, offices, churches, entertainment venues, the Roane State campus, the Alexander Inn (soon to be a senior living facility), tennis courts, etc. The Jackson Square neighborhood has “good bones” — the potential to become one of those trendy in-town neighborhoods that many of us admire in other cities. The Jackson Square renovation is supposed to be a step toward making that vision a reality.

The start of construction at Jackson Square is delayed because the bids came in “too high.”

]]>1Ellen Smithhttp://ellensmith.org/http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=13232014-10-12T14:39:41Z2014-10-09T02:14:31Z There are three candidate events remaining on the calendar for Oak Ridge City Council and Board of Education elections. All are open to the public, without charge.

The last item on the Chamber of Commerce questionnaire was an open-ended question:
Do you have any other issues you would like to address?

My response: I support the city sign ordinance. It helps to maintain the kind of esthetics that I believe people look for in a high-quality community. The visual clutter from competing signs that I see on the streets of some other area communities isn’t good for anybody – it’s ugly, and everyone’s messages get lost in the clutter of many competing signs.

However, I have heard and am sympathetic to the concerns of businesses that lack the visibility they need to help customers find them, the difficulty people have in interpreting the rules about signs, and the impression that certain businesses are allowed to have much better signage than their competitors. I hope that city government and the business community can work together to revamp the sign ordinance so that it allows businesses to have the visibility they need to reach customers, while maintaining esthetics.

]]>4Ellen Smithhttp://ellensmith.org/http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=13112014-10-27T13:08:49Z2014-10-05T23:55:55ZQuestion 5 from the Progress PAC was about City Council relationships with the Chamber of Commerce and “other business developers.”
Question: What relationship should the city council have with the Chamber of Commerce and other business developers?

My response: City Council should look to organizations like the Chamber of Commerce as good sources of insight and advice on the needs and concerns of the business community, as well as economic development and related matters. Similarly, I hope that organizations like the Chamber – and its individual members – will contact Council members (either individually or as a body) when they want to offer advice or advocate for particular concerns.

I support Mark Watson’s recent changes that ended the close partnership relationship between the City and the Chamber, replacing it with a relationship in which the Chamber is more like a service provider for the City. It appears to me that the Chamber can advocate more effectively for its membership if it isn’t also operating as a quasi-branch of the city government, and I believe that City government should not prefer any one set of businesspeople (in this case, Chamber members) over the business community as a whole. However, I know that the Chamber is often in a unique position to work with city government to perform functions that the city government needs to support, so the two organizations should plan to continue to do business together.

]]>0Ellen Smithhttp://ellensmith.org/http://ellensmith.org/blog/?p=13072014-10-05T18:14:54Z2014-10-05T16:51:10ZI posted on the Oak Ridge backyard chickens page on Facebook, and might as well repeat it here:

I voted for backyard chickens while I was on City Council.
I see this as one of several examples of new ideas that Oak Ridge needs to embrace in order to meet the needs and expectations of new generations of residents.

Before the early 1990s, I had never heard of greenways, but then I listened to people who supported greenways and got enthusiastically involved in developing Oak Ridge’s original greenways master plan — and I’m pleased with the continuing expansion of our greenways system.

Before about 10 years ago, I had never heard of dog parks (although I now realize I had experience as a dog owner with areas that could have been considered unofficial dog parks), but now it’s important for every community to have dog parks — and fortunately we finally have a good one here.

I guess I first heard about backyard chickens about 7 years ago (and was surprised by the idea at first). I see this as another new idea that Oak Ridge needs to embrace if we want to keep up with the times.